Chapter 3
R iordan
On what was probably the strangest day of my life, several facts formed from one short conversation.
First, that both Arran and Sin, Cassie’s brother/father, had accepted her so-called claiming of me with barely a blink of an eye.
Second, that I’d heard rumour of Shade, the skeleton crew’s enforcer, doing the same with Everly and everyone taking it as fact.
Third, that the moment Cassie informed us of the threat against her, my focus shifted from my own concerns to hers.
What the hell was up with that?
“Read me the note,” I demanded.
Cassie’s cheeks pinkened. She took the piece of paper back from her brother, who leapt up to stalk to the window, and read it. “Meet me on the river path at five. I need to get you alone.” Her gaze rose to mine. “It’s signed with your name.”
Shock stole another portion of my anger. “I didn’t write that.”
“I know. That’s the reason I ran. And why I took ye with me.”
She peeked at me with such an expression of regret and something closing in on fear that my stomach clenched.
Her brother gestured between us. “Catch me up. I’m missing the connection to that being a threat.”
Arran obliged. “You’re aware that Alisha, a key member of my crew, was murdered. She was the fourth woman killed in Deadwater in the space of a few months, and the murderer lured her away by use of a note. It claimed to be from Convict, who she had an emotional connection to. The last time any of us saw her was with a smile on her face at the prospect of meeting up with him.”
Sin swore. Both his meaty hands were bunched into fists. Mine were, too, I realised, held in front of me with my wrists taped.
He snarled a question. “Where’s that note now? Is it the same handwriting?”
Cassie replied, “Alisha told one of the dancers about it, but Dixie never saw the note herself, so she told me. It hasn’t been found. Either way, I wasn’t taking any chances. I knew what it was and I took action.”
Her brother growled out something about how he’d end anyone who threatened his family, then questioned Arran on all that was happening to find the killer.
The media storm, the hapless police, the dead ends of suspects they’d looked at.
I watched Cassie, my emotions at war with themselves but concern winning, despite my better judgement. What she’d done to me was unforgivable, but I could maybe understand it. She’d been threatened. The cute-as-fuck Scottish lass with her abundant black curls and curious mind had received a death threat. Dread added to my concern. Once, I’d nicknamed her wild girl. Better wild than dead.
Her gaze lifted and locked on to mine.
A zap of electricity hit at the eye contact. I slow blinked to reject it.
She gave me a lopsided, rueful smile. “I really am sorry. I’ll cut that tape now. I forgot it was there.”
Her brother paused his discussion with Arran. “Not yet.”
Cassie raised an eyebrow at him.
“I’ll show him how to free himself in case it happens again. If he’s a target in the same way ye are, it could prove useful.”
A target? The drug Cassie had used on me was still affecting my brain, and my memories were cloudy. I’d struggled to remember the previous evening, but it resolved in a quick succession of scenes. I’d been working as security in the brothel. Moniqua, who I’d once slept with, though I had no memory of the night, had come to me and asked for my help. She’d told me something that was just on the edge of my brain. Christ, what was it?
My pulse quickened. A rival gang had approached her. She’d been afraid. It was important, but why?
Her words returned. I sat forward.
“Bronson is using sedatives.”
Everyone went quiet.
“Explain,” Arran ordered.
I closed my eyes to focus in on what I knew. “Last night, a woman came to me and told me that Red from the Four Milers is trying to get her to work in his strip club. He put pressure on Moniqua, but she refused. She then told me his second-in-command uses sedatives on women, and Red threatened to send him after her next. She said she was scared.”
A crash came down the line, and I imagined Arran slamming his fist on his desk.
“The killer used sedatives on some of his victims. It was in the post-mortem results,” he said, presumably for Sin’s benefit.
I knew that, but how?
I returned my gaze to Cassie, more memories creeping back. I’d tried to put her off me by pretending to be into Moniqua. Then, guilt-ridden, I’d gone to her room to look for her. She had a detective’s wall of the killings, including that clue written on a sheet of paper pinned up against a map of Deadwater, string linking the sites the murder victims had been found. I’d read it right before her injection knocked me out. She must have been lying in wait, maybe thinking I was the killer.
Fuck, what a mess.
Voices sounded at the other end of the phone, Shade’s tones adding to Arran’s. He’d summoned his enforcer. Then silence followed as if Arran had muted the call.
Cassie’s brother reached out a long arm to cup her shoulder in a show of reassurance. Distracted, and still staring at the note, she squeezed his fingers.
For some reason, that gesture socked me in the gut.
So fucking typical of me to be floored by a father figure providing comfort.
The leader of the skeleton crew came back on the line. “That was valuable intelligence, Riordan. After Alisha’s death, we’ve been unable to bring the action I’d planned against Red and his people. Not with camera crews outside and reporters blaming the brothel for attracting a predator to the city. This is exactly what we needed to act.”
“What are you going to do?” I asked.
“We’ll let you know when it’s over.” Movement and voices crowded his on the open line. Arran was leaping to work, using the information I’d given him.
I struggled forward, life returning to my limbs. “I want to be a part of it. I’ll come back.”
“No. Stay and guard Cassie. Whoever wrote that note was using you to get to her. I need you to keep her safe, yourself, too.”
Safe with the woman who’d abducted me? What a fucking joke. I tried again. “How am I supposed to do that? I’ve got no transport. No weapon. Nothing beyond the clothes on my back.”
“Noted. Leave that with me.” Arran spoke again to whoever was in his office then hung up.
Cassie’s brother grabbed her hand and tugged her from the room, addressing her in low and urgent tones. Her one-word answers were far more muted.
Her brother returned alone.
He took the opposite seat to mine. “I need to know your intentions towards my sister.”
“She fucking kidnapped me. My intentions are to get the hell away from her.”
“You’re not going to do that. Arran ordered ye to stay, and I’m reinforcing that. Not for his sake, but for Cassie’s. Tomorrow, my wife and I will be leaving in the morning and staying away overnight. The rest of my family are elsewhere, and we’ve made arrangements for the three kids who aren’t at camp to stay with friends. I’m going to pull Struan back, that’s our older brother, but I can’t be sure when he’ll arrive. The one thing I am certain of is Cassie will not be left alone.”
I worked through his problem. I shouldn’t give a fuck, but I couldn’t help myself. “You leaving here means Cassie would be unprotected. Tell me why I should care.”
His gaze shifted over me like he was sizing me up. My biceps under my skeleton crew black t-shirt. My frame. I sat taller as if I needed to prove my worth.
“Because she’s Cassie,” he replied simply. “Arran said you’re a hard worker. Can ye fight?”
A scowl formed on my lips. “I spent the past seven years working construction then one month in a gang. Unless you count the times I had to knock back my drunken stepfather, no, I have no experience of fighting beyond taking care of myself. But that’s beside the point.”
He palmed his chin, thinking. “Struan can help with that. Cassie’s good with a blade and is a decent shot, but at close range, her size and strength are a disadvantage.”
“For fuck’s sake. You’re talking about a woman who drugged me to bring me here. Why does no one else think what she did is messed up?”
“We do. We also respect her choices.”
“I’m not hers to choose. I’m also not her fucking boyfriend and I have no interest in staying here to play bodyguard.”
He leaned forward so his forearms were on his knees, and his expression morphed to something dark and deadly. I’d seen the same shift in his sister when she’d tortured a man in the warehouse’s basement. Then, I’d been unexpectedly turned on. Her brother bringing that same energy chilled me.
“A killer threatened my sister by pretending to be ye. I get your concerns, but that’s pride talking. Get over it. There is no other priority than her safety. Do ye hear me? Let’s make one thing clear. Hurt her, or allow her to be hurt, and I’ll end ye.”
I gave a slow nod in reply. Anything else would be risking my neck.
Cassie’s unique form of crazy obviously ran in the family.
“Glad we understand each other. If it’s your ego you’re worried about, our brother Jamieson’s girl had to spring him from prison. My lass left her island to hunt me down. Sometimes, women make the show of strength, so fucking deal with it. Now, sit up straight and raise your hands above your head. Get your elbows close together so there’s tension on the tape, then you’re going to bring your hands down quickly so your elbows go either side of your ribs.”
Sin acted out slashing his wrists down and breaking them apart. “One swift action and it’ll shred right through that. Good practice if it happens to ye again.”
Incredulous, I followed orders and got into position, enough strength returned to my muscles to comply.
It didn’t feel like this would work, but I had to get free. I needed to take a piss. To work out how to get out of here. To call…
Would anyone be worried about me?
Genevieve would hear from Arran that I was away from the warehouse. She’d tell Everly, my other sister, who now knew that we shared a father, a secret I’d carried for years. Neither of them would be alarmed. They were friends with Cassie, the three women thick as thieves. It would probably amuse them to hear what she did.
Shades of embarrassment threatened my mood further. I’d been captured by a five-foot-nothing lass, but only because she’d been able to knock me out. I wasn’t in any real danger from her.
But she was. Someone had threatened her.
“Fucking hell,” I growled out. Then with a savage downwards slash of my hands, broke the tape that held me.